PALO ALTO, Calif. and LONDON, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Anacor Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline today announced that they have entered into a worldwide strategic alliance for the discovery, development and commercialization of novel medicines for viral and bacterial diseases. The collaboration provides GlaxoSmithKline access to Anacor's proprietary boron-based chemistry for use against selected targets.

GlaxoSmithKline will participate in the alliance through its Infectious Diseases Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery (ID CEDD). Under the terms of the agreement, Anacor will grant GlaxoSmithKline options to select product candidates developed under the collaboration that are directed to up to four discovery targets and with the potential for at least eight product options.

SYRIA AND SYRIAN-CONTROLLED LEBANON

The book blamed Hafez al-Asad, then minister of defense, for the military defeat at the hands of Israeli forces in June 1967. After Brayez's sentence expired in August 1985, his family lost contact with him and his whereabouts were unknown for several years. In November 1991, Middle East Watch received reports that he was being held in the general wing of al-Mezze prison in Damascus.



New political prisoners in 1991 include four members of the Workers Revolutionary Party and twenty-nine from the Arab Socialist Union Party (ASU). They were arrested even though the parties themselves are legal, apparently because they had distributed leaflets criticizing the Baath Party's monopoly of power. Among the ASU members arrested were Ahmed al-Khatib, a lawyer; his son, Tha'ir; and Najib al-Derdem, also a jurist.

Tattle: Oprah has a new way to channel her power

IF ONLY Oprah had more to do.

Between the TV show and the magazine and the South African school and the ABC series starting in March and the XM satellite radio channel and producing movies and shows, could there possibly be any hours left for her to accomplish anything else?

Turns out, yes.

She's getting her own channel.

Discovery Communications and Oprah announced yesterday that the Discovery Health network will become OWN - the Oprah Winfrey Network.

The cash-free transaction involved Oprah turning over her Web site to Discovery and Discovery naming Oprah chairman of her new channel, currently available in 68 million homes. So said David Zaslav, Discovery Communications chief.

"The focus of the channel will be the focus of Oprah's brand, which is to educate and inspire people to live the best life they can," Zaslav said.

Migrating to Flatter, All-IP Wireless Networks

To address consumer demands for better voice and data communications and more advanced services, wireless technology standards have evolved over the last decade from 1G systems to the currently deployed 3G systems. Despite the growth of carrier networks and the evolution of standards, voice and data communications have not evolved in synch. Carriers have historically added data communications as an afterthought to voice network architectures originally conceived in the circuit-switched era, resulting in complex hierarchical networks that support both voice and data.

This type of architecture is expensive, leading to high operating and capital expenditures for service providers and significantly lowering margins in a highly competitive industry. In addition, networks employing cobbled-together voice and data communications systems simply do not have the capacity to provide the rich multimedia services and omnipresent Internet access that todays wireless customers demand.

Review: Curvy Widow' covers scant new ground

Curvy Widow: Solo comedy. By Bobby Goldman. Performed by Cybill Shepherd. Directed by Scott Schwartz. (Through March 9. Post Street Theatre, 450 Post St., San Francisco. 90 minutes. Tickets: $50-$75. Call (415) 771-6900 or go to www.ticketmaster.com.)

It isn't very funny, though not for want of trying - hard.